I recently discovered a fairly large (a few hundred wasps, from the look of it) wasp-nest under the eaves on the side of my house.

Anyways, I called a exterminator (Terminix, actually), and they tried to push a year-long maintenance contract on me, and claimed that wasps leave pheremones, and if you don't continually kill them off, they will keep coming back.

In my own research, there is no note of this particular wasp behaviour on wikipedia, and I have actually found a lot of insect-control websites that specifically say wasps don't nest in the same place every year. This makes me think that Terminix may be stringing me along a bit.

Has anyone heard this claim "they will return unless you kill them off repeatedly" statement before, or is it likely that I can deal with it myself with a can of wasp-killer spray?

Remember that wasps are also beneficial to humans, except for the stinging. Many eat the insects that want to eat your vegetable garden. Can you tolerate them until they leave the nest for winter?
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Jay BazuziSep 9 '12 at 14:43

4

Just walk around your house every once in a while, and take care of these things before they get out of control.
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dbraceySep 9 '12 at 19:39

I had to use wasp killer on a few nests in the corner of my backyard fence last year. I sprayed very thoroughly, and didn't see any for the rest of the year. This year they were back in the same spot again. I'm aware that it's only anecdotal evidence, but from my experience they can (maybe by just coincidence) return to the same spot.
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DoresoomSep 10 '12 at 20:15

They may simply be returning to the same spot because it matches the same criteria as being a good place for a nest -- sheltered and so on.
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keshlamOct 6 '14 at 4:35

7 Answers
7

A $3 can of wasp spray will do the trick. Hit them at dusk, soak down the nest. The nest will be empty come morning. Some sprays say on the label that they will repel wasps for a couple of months. I always carry several cans of spray in my truck as I run into them constantly when working on houses. Go get um !!!!

You can deal with removing the nest yourself, or depending on where you live and how cold it gets, you can wait till the winter as they will naturally die when it gets cold.

Here are instructions:

Wasp nest removal is a fairly simple process. Finding the nest usually
entails a quick survey for heavy wasp traffic during dusk or dawn,
when wasps tend to return to the nest. Once the sun is down for the
evening and you've noticed less traffic near the nest, dress yourself
with multiple layers of clothing, and find a pair of gloves, just in
case. Then, go out to the nest and spray the entrance with any wasp
killing agent, like Raid. Spray liberally, but avoid inhaling too much
of the poison. Most wasp poisons kill on contact, but it's best to be
safe by slowly leaving the area, as sudden movements can attract
attention.

Which wasp killer you use depends on where the nest is:

For nests that are located underground, you will want to use a wasp
killer that is not labeled as a projectile spray. You want very little
spray for yellow jacket nests that are found underground.

For nests that are elevated, you will want to find a can of wasp and
hornet killer that is labeled as a projectile spray. This will ensure
a stream of wasp poison roughly 15–20 feet in length, allowing plenty
of distance to make a quick escape if necessary.

Repeating this process twice or even three times may be necessary
until you're certain the nest has been vacated. Once you see that
there is no traffic, it's probably safe to knock down the nest if it's
an aerial nest, or fill the nest with dirt and gravel if it's in the
ground. This should be the end of your wasp problem until the next
migration cycle.

As a retired telco lineman, I had daily encounters with yellow jacket wasps. I used to finish the summer days with wasps' nests past my ankles in the bottom of the bucket. As in bucket truck. We had to deal with them when we we opened the enclosure, and they would be pretty angry due to our invasion of their home in the telco equipment. A couple of tips: always wear glasses that cover the eyes well, as they will try and sting you in the eyes if your eyes are close to their nest. You could use a CO2 fire extinguisher, as it will freeze them and stop their activity.

The statement that the wasps will return, is in a way true, since any good home will again be used by the wasps looking for a place to call their own next year. One thing I did notice over the winter, when working in the splices: the surviving nests were vacant, but if I probed around in the nest I would see a larger wasp, the queen. It seems the queen would survive the winter, and may in fact start a new nest. If you remove the whole nest, and destroy it, this shouldn't be a problem. Make sure you will not fall off a ladder, or fall if being stung, because this has killed utility workers. It is a good idea to have someone on standby if you get stung, since your throat will swell closed, and anaphylactic shock can set in, even if you never had a reaction before. If you don't have help ready, you won't live to tell the tale. It happens quickly and kills, even in urban areas with hospital and ambulances nearby.

It's bad enough to have to kill insects, but poisoning them is unnecessary and bad karma.

A good method for moving or exterminating them is to act at dusk or in the earliest part of a cool morning, while they are sluggish or immobile (per other postings). Also, as suggested elsewhere, wear protection.
Take a large (enough) plastic bag and gently envelope the nest with it. Carefully gather the bag opening around the nest attach point. As you pull the nest from its attach point, close the top of the bag and secure it with a knot or bag closure. Then either toss the bag into the trash or else relocate it and open the top, assuming the insects are still inactive.

Second, if you want to come over to my house, get on a ladder, and scrape a hornet's nest off from a hard-to-access cranny under the eaves, so the hornets don't get hurt, you're welcome to. I personally want a solution that won't end up with me dropping an angry hornet's nest on my foot.
–
Fake NameOct 20 '12 at 3:34

8

When you throw a closed bag in the trash, I'm pretty sure they die a slow agonizing death (starvation, dehydration, or suffocation).
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BMitch♦Oct 20 '12 at 11:07

Glad to hear the can worked for you. Two years ago we had 3 wasps nests on the house. All three were in the cavity of the wall behind the brick. I take it from the above your nest was external to the house. I must have spent $200 on cans trying to attack these guys as they were a threat to us, coming into the living space and generally owning the property. One was in a dryer vent, one was in a weep hole and the third one was in a window corner having bored through caulking and insulation. I read up on this a bit and the understanding is we got three nests because when an established nest gets big enough part of its community along with a new queen fly off (can't remember the term) but if you witness it it is like a cloud leaving the mother ship and they don't go very far to build a new one. So that would have happened 2 times likely while we were on vacation away from the home. As it got colder the wasps just couldn't move very well, any left in the walls died in the winter and no wasps have come back although we did seal up the entries pretty good. For the dryer vent and window issue we re-caulked and for the weep hole we installed a stainless steel insert in all of them. This past summer was peaceful.

I have to chuckle because a in doing a ton of research I found a guy with the same issue and his solution was to stand at the front of the entry point with a tennis racquet and swat each one as it came out. I didn't have the nerve for that.